AS to the topic of Syria, I say Assad is but one of many among the one percent who see themselves as entitled beyond all reason and endurance. Let us cut off his head.

It is, as I am well aware, a matter of some controversy. Many say no no no, let us not intervene, and it is certain that many who hold such objection do so strictly as a matter of conscience. To them let no taint append for this cause.

Were OWS an organization, one given to discipline, deliberation, and decisiveness, we might provide the possibility of an Organizational Position while releasing each and every member to act according to conscience.

Were OWS to take up such a position, the benefits would be thus:

We would demonstrate clearly to those one percenters everywhere, that we are indeed content with their sudden and calamitous demise.

Less than 50% of the public support any intervention in Syria. We could ascend to power with a demonstration of the ability to change public perception, and so to harness the people.

We could change the public perception on this issue because the death of Assad is in this case Just. We could make that case on far more than the mere use of Chemical Weapons alone, for the longer a conflict of this nature continues, the deeper the emotional scars among the population afflicted with the scourge of war. Many are the deficits of prolonged conflict.

The principle beneficiaries of extending this conflict are those who would use such events to draw in members of al Qaida, and so perpetuate their ability to recruit, to train, to know and become intimate with killing and so hone their art. Such a position must be opposed as a matter of principle.

Were we successful at swaying public opinion we would strike fear into the hearts of the one percent whose single allegiance is to wealth and to power. Were the nation to act as we had advocated, and had we so advocated loudly and often, it would be unclear to these one percent pretenders what degree of influence we actually possess.

For the purposes of negotiation we could allude to the possibility that any one of these unentitled one percent scum could be next.

Such a set of circumstances would induce among many of our opponents a degree of panic, and in their hysteria they would over play their hands, providing openings we could capitalize on.

Such a set of circumstances would enhance recruitment to us in a number of ways, not least of which are those in mid level positions of trust among the one percent, with access to information that we would find useful. Some of them would surely turn to us, just as some of them have in the past, for what ever reasons they may have. The links below establish that indeed, it has happened in the past:

Within the Christian mind, this presents the image of Armageddon. For all of those repelicans who have ascended to public office while standing upon the Christian Bible, there is now a distinct dilemma. Much of right wing Christian dogma demands that the Christian embrace Armageddon at every opportunity. Thus those who have ascended to power standing upon the Bible must appear as cowards among their own constituents, and may easily be run from office with a carefully contrived astroturfing campaign. While the issue of Armageddon itself is a topic that OWS need not take up, such an astroturfing campaign could easily be undertaken and maintained at arms length from the organization itself.

Perhaps with little more than a small suggestion to the Tea Party.

Such an approach would necessarily be noted among even Pentagon brass, who must even now be assessing the behavior of Putin and asking if his behavior is little more than a probe, a query of our will by him regarding our willingness, our commitment, to do the right thing.

132 Comments

Assad is not the only bad guy in the world, and if it weren't for the oil and strategic interests we might have more concern for greater human rights violators, like in Burma/Myanmar.

Then we have "Plausible Deniability" indirect murders (million per year) right here at home, killing with GREED: Kochs, Corporatists, RepubliCons, DINOs, and The Federalist Society: http://fedsocbook.com/

What is unbelievably shocking is for how long and to what extent Cons are insane (a cult acting masochistically and sadistically). It is a testament to the strength of our democracy that despite the entire panoply of their shock doctrine we are still able to operate as a relatively free people. If only more people were engaged and united, there would be no political malfeasance evil that we could not crush! Like cockroaches!!

Walker & Issa as well as McTurtle and Boner (as nearly all Cons and the few remaining DINOs) are mere flunkies and henchmen for the 1% their cult worships. Team 1%. The people who Vote for them are either as Thomas Frank described in his great book "What's the Matter With Kansas" misled by moral and other concerns (gays, abortion, condoms, taxes or guns) or are so prejudice against Dems that they Vote for Cons and against their own best interests.

But the vast majority of 1%-Con supporters are the teaming sea of disengaged & disillusioned non-Voters. Ignorance is no excuse! Democracy is weakened and fails exponentially to the lack of participation of the People ~ Team 99%.

I don't believe the circumstance suggest the chemical attack by the government. The US is just trying to make excuses to kill with bombs.
The US has lied in the recent past to invade Iraq
The US has no credibility and will further damage that by destroying more countries and lives

I like your narrative in comparison Assad to oblivious 1% who only care about dem interest and who don't care about rest of the world. But what happened to Libya? I remember Gaddafi being ready to reveal al Qaeda camps locations during his speech in UN assembly. I remember him promising no taxation to people of Libya, the most successful region in Africa, - no more, the chaos . the camp ground for terrorist of al Qaeda. Speaking of truth , United States has the interest in the region and Assad crossed the red line. When I typed "red line" I remembered the kosher prime minister showing his drawing to delegates of general Assembly of UN, trying to make a point against the treat of Iran's nuclear program. Drone strikes most likely won't change the situation, America won't lose such expensive toys. Massive bombarding needs to be done, and Obama and his military consultants knows it but wouldn't tell to members of Congress covering it in limited actions. More destr%ctions , - more death toll. My opinion is one of the affiliated with terrorist groups smuggle zarin bombs across the Syrian border to exchange for ammunition. Israel intelligent forces took it to go (who else can it be besides Assad) and accidentally dropped it on civilian population of Syria, no biggie. As long as Muslim brothers continuously kill each other it will keep them busy and Israelis gonna feel safer... to exploring unexplored "Israelis " territories and so on.

My opinion is that we should not use violence in the case of Syria. There are better ways to intervene.

As for you, instead of being a Christian trying to make his place in an atheist party, I suggest you find another party. Why try to fit in a group where your ideologies simply do not match. Have integrity, start your own protest if you want violence, and if you don't believe in anarchy. You remind me of my friend Timmy who would spend his days at the mosque telling muslims they should read verses from the Bible instead of the Qu'ran.

Unfortunately, there is not enough support for OWS. A lot of people talk about supporting the protest, but, nowadays, not enough people go out in the street to really support it. I wish the whole nation would be taken by storm. I wish you would get out of your house and join us in the streets once in awhile. Your idea of OWS is some kind of fictitious dream. You think it means coming on this site and insulting other users. My dream is for OWS to take over and transform the US republic into full on anarchy. That is my dream.

Faith has nothing to do with OWS, it was a metaphor. You come to this site, but you disagree with almost all the basic principles of OWS, i.e. non-violence, anarchy, leaderless protest, etc... That's fine. It's OK for you to do that. However, I just feel you are wasting your time. Where's your integrity? Why not spend energy on a movement or protest you believe in. If you think the solution is a politically organized protest that uses violence, then start that type of protest. I mean, I don't go posting on the Republican or Democrat forums telling them they should be like Occupy. It just makes little sense. Shouldn't we all be spending energy on things we believe in? Isn't that the definition of integrity?

You sound like an old wife nagging at her husband secretly hoping she can change him. Occupy won't change my friend.

If you believe in your ideas, if you believe they might be good, then you owe it to others and yourself to try them out. I don't agree with your ideas, but that doesn't mean they couldn't be right. They could be. We won't know until you try them out. Why don't you start a movement or a protest based on them? Nowadays, with the Internet, it's not that hard. You post here trying to change Occupy, but you're just hitting a brick wall. If you wrote to people who had similar ideas, you could start forging a community of people that would agree and could protest together using your preferred tactics.

You are a failure. Just as you have always been. You are not involved in Occupy. You have never been. You have never met Jart. You never had a falling out. You have nothing but conspiracy theories to offer. You are paid to post.

I have been thinking about this, there is a "gentleman's agreement" that "world leaders" will kill each other directly, only the people in each other's country and army, that's bullshit we should reject it and put an end to the most outrageous of this shit.

We are nearly 30 years into the age of 1984, and some still think it has not arrived. The training of competent killers is an essential element of control, many have read the books. As the Iraq and Afghanistan training camps close others must be open. Nothing is more dangerous than a sense of safety. Danger distracts the mind. Oh and shit happening in Syria is an abomination.

Really? It is undeniable fact that Saddam gassed Kurds and Iranians. Many thousands. He was a bigger villain than assad. I still think you must have been thrilled since you want Assad's head. Anything else would not make any sense. Course, 4 downvotes of my orignal observation on your appreciation of Dubya doesn't make sense either.

More important..who controls Iraqi airspace? Iran has been granted overflight permission as it aids assad.

I'm sure they arent. But the bottom line is we sent 33k of our people to their death, and injured another 200k.

Thats a lot of death and violence.

My point with all of this is that you hold the Dems on some kind of a pedestal, some position of moral authority, when history shows they are pretty awful just like the Republicans. They are better in some regards, like at least claiming to be socially liberal.

But with war, wall st, banker fraud, offshoring jobs they are just as bad.

Huh? The commander-in-chief is pretty irrelevant to this discussion. Saddam unquestionably used chem weapons more times and killed more innocents than Assad has allegedly done. How can you talk about repelicans or democraps? If we are to enforce the WORLD;S redline, does it matter who is in charge? If we see the use of chem weapons against INNOCENTS as unacceptable, how can you object to the removal of Saddam just because it was a BUSH (with full Congressional and UN approval) that did it? Your partisanship is not only showing, it is nonsensical

Iraq just like Afghanistan just like droning Pakistan just like air strikes against Libya and now the proposed action against Syria. ALL done for reasons of controlling resources. not humanitarian reasons - or maybe we would have gone into Rwanda.

It amazes me how easy it is for some people to justify war. I suspect these war mongers have never been in a war. Dammed elitists like Zen, who on another recent thread advocates violence in the US to fix our social and and financial problems. Now he thinks leaders of other nations should be killed.

Texas is still a much better place than Detroit. People can find jobs, people can afford decent houses, people can walk down the street and not worry about being robbed, people can pay low taxes, and the list goes on. Austin, TX has been on every "best places" list for over ten years straight. Best places to live, best place to raise kids, best place to start a business, best outdoor city, etc... .

Bottom line is Detroit is a high crime slum. It's done. Texas is a safe and secure place to live. That's just the way it is.

How many times do you intend to rehash this union thing. I'm not anti-union. If you recall I told you I was a union member for most of my career. My issue is when unions become as corrupt and bad as the companies. For instance (as I've said before), the UAW almost killed the US auto industry. Greed and corruption is wrong whether it's from a bad company or a bad union. The UAW was a bad union. Don't believe me, just ask anyone one the street. But I digress.

Back on topic. Saying "off with someone's head" is just another war monger. How many wars will be enough to quench you taste for blood. How many people have to die before you've had your fill of death? How can you sleep at night with such a propensity for violence?

Lol. He said that? Russia is beefing things up in the Caspian Sea. Has been for a while and that's something they care about. They could care less about Syria.

Obama is gambling here but he's in a tough spot. I don't believe he wants to go off on Syria and he's hoping congress say's no. Kerry, McCain and Graham are dumb. Pundits on this site are just waiting for their marching orders.

I'm not a conservative. But I'm not a bat sheet crazy liberal either. Should I remind you that you're the one advocating attacking Syria, and using violence to affect social change in the US. My consistent message is no war and no violence. You're so caught up in wanting blood that you refuse to accept that.

The truth is I am non-violent, and I hate war. Few things anger me as much as the US continuing to become involved in wars that aren't related to our national defense. I've seen war up close and personal. It's not something people should make light of like Zen is doing.

On the other hand, I'm a gun owner with a good inventory of weapons and I train often. I'm perfectly capable of defending myself. Being non-violent doesn't mean I don't believe in self defense.